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Project EquillibRIAA

For the last few years I’ve talked quietly of a project to connect artists with the victims of lawsuits in the name of their bands. After the verdict handed down by the latest case of Sony vs. Tenenbaum I think it is time to put this plan to action. I’ve emailed Joel and received a list of the bands he was sued for and what I’d like to do is draw national attention to the public interfaces these bands have set up for
themselves.

I’ve created a public document which contains a list of the bands and any Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, or other public forums the bands have set up for themselves. I could use help tracking down some of the missing links in this list. In some cases the bands no longer exist but members of the original band still live on in other bands or on their own.

To be clear the purpose of this project is not to harass these musicians. It is to remove the wedge of the RIAA from artists and their fans and ask them to communicate. The one question I’d like to see the artists answer is “Do you support the actions the RIAA has taken on behalf of your band in destroying the life of Joel Tenenbaum?”

Joel is being fined $22,500 for each of the 30 songs that he downloaded
from KaZaa. His total fine is $675,000 for an activity that a majority of the Internet users in this country have and still participate in. This isn’t to say that we should advocate copyright infringement but that we shouldn’t agree with the penalties associated with infringement.

This project is still being assembled and I would appreciate any feedback and help the FC community can muster. I’d like to coordinate a massive feedback storm requesting comment via Twitter, Myspace, etc so these artists can’t escape without saying something. Anything. What we need is dialog from musicians about what is happening to their fans.